Again, I’ll repeat what I posted below:

I don’t think he understands just how difficult it is to actually form a competent military, and how much bureaucracy even a bunch of mercenaries like Blackwater actually needs in the background. Sentries fall asleep on watch, roving patrols don’t actually rove, logs get routinely blazed along with routine maintenance, inspections are marked complete while sweeping discrepancies under the table, supplies are rerouted or just plundered. And then there’s the manning issue. And again - millions of disgruntled, highly trained service members who know a thing or two about US strategic weaknesses, tactics, and standard operating procedures.

That’s when it gets real interesting to see if 120.5 firearms for every one hundred civilians actually does anything, as the 2A folks keep insisting.

When you have 300 million civilians with 1.2 guns each, and even a small portion of that decides to “do something about it”, that’s how you make the US cease to exist as a nation-state. Lots and lots of disgruntled, highly trained servicemembers.

You’d be surprised how many junior enlisted get up into shenanigans once they get past the boot camp phase. They get very quickly disillusioned once they reach the real military and realize their role isn’t to be Rambo or some COD fantasy but to hold a bucket and a mop, take out the trash, fetch coffee for officers and stand watch in the pouring rain with standard issue raingear that soaks all the way through in the first hour. Then the NCOs start revealing to them, privately, that upper brass is full of shit, the officers are all morons, and the SNCOs are all out of touch old men, and the disgruntlement really begins.

Sentries sleep on post. Roving patrols don’t do their rounds. Logs get blazed and backdated. Contraband gets passed around and “tactically acquired” in exchange for Monsters and tobacco dip. Chits get “lost” in routing, orders are conveniently “forgotten” or very interestingly “interpreted” and stretched.

The military functions because somehow, despite all the sandbagging and blazing, shit actually gets done if and only if the enlisted have a vested interest in it getting done (like keeping a ship from colliding or sinking, or a promise from an NCO with a history of following through that everyone goes home as soon as the paperwork is done), or if they’re not against it (get the equipment from point A to point B, figure it out). If enlisted don’t want something done, it’s hilariously easy for the thing not to get done, delayed, or done “strictly in accordance with”.

Not true. At least in the Navy commands I’ve served in so far, it’s been pretty split down the middle, both officers and enlisted. Officers try not to have any political opinion - and when they do and it’s cold war style Hooyah, the enlisted roll their eyes. There’s sprawling arguments among the enlisted, especially the E4-E5 range, and privately the E6-E7 get into all sorts of political discussions about how the politicians and officers are full of shit.

See that’s the thing, the enlisted are chock-full of contrarians ready to do “sneaky and enlisted” shenanigans just for kicks, contrary to popular belief. There’s an understanding that the officers are mostly full of stuck-up nepo pricks with unrealistic expectations and no understanding of the reality on the ground and in the shops. There’s a whole E4/E5 mafia at every command “tactically acquiring” contraband, goods, and services in exchange for favors. Sentries fall asleep on watch if they think they won’t get caught, and roving patrols simply don’t rove if they think they can get away with it, and usually, they can. The logs get blazed all the time without anyone noticing, maintenance isn’t actually completed, gauges aren’t actually read, doors aren’t checked and safes aren’t locked. There’s unauthorized videogame consoles installed in the back of the shop behind a bunch of crates, and you can get your qualification papers signed off in exchange for a Monster Ultra and apack of Slim Jims, or a log of dip. The SNCO can come through ripping down posters and crumbling them up and tossing them in the trash, but the E4 is just gonna come up behind him once he’s gone and put it right back up.

The military is a sprawling bureaucracy because people are people and people like cushy jobs where 90% of the time they’re not actually doing it. Your supply chit could get routed in a single day, but that would require effort in the entire supply chain, so instead it’ll be about 3 or 4 months before you receive the critical maintenance part. It doesn’t matter how many admirals and generals he fires, if the boots on the ground just grind the gears to a near standstill - and that’s where I’m putting my hopes for now.

I don’t think he understands just how difficult it is to actually form a competent military, and how much bureaucracy even a bunch of mercenaries like Blackwater actually needs in the background. Sentries fall asleep on watch, roving patrols don’t actually rove, logs get routinely blazed along with routine maintenance, inspections are marked complete while sweeping discrepancies under the table, supplies are rerouted or just plundered. And then there’s the manning issue. And again - millions of disgruntled, highly trained service members who know a thing or two about US strategic weaknesses, tactics, and standard operating procedures.

That’s when it gets real interesting to see if 120.5 firearms for every one hundred civilians actually does anything, as the 2A folks keep insisting.

MUTUAL AID. As you prep, remember to never believe yourself a lone wolf. The solution is not to bunker down and recluse ourselves from the rest of society - that’s what they want you to do. Remember the old song - “Yet what force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one? But the Union makes us strong”.

We are stronger together when we join hands in solidarity. The answer to the forces trying to split us up is to lock arms with those around us even tighter. Volunteer with Food Not Bombs. Find your local community garden and contribute there. Join Buy Nothing collectives. Learn to repair. Learn to mend everything from socks to shoes.

If you’re renting, start a Tenants Union. Get to know all the other families with kids, the parents, the concerned guardians, and organize to do communal childcare and education - look up the Montessori method and Socratic method.

And as you fight, maintain an attitude of stubborn optimism. There’s nothing that makes the oligarchs happier than despair and despondency, quiet acceptance of the worsening of the world. Stubborn optimism. A better world is possible, if we work together and fight for it.

No, really? The site run by u/spez? I’ll shocked. Shocked, I say. /s

Welcome to Lemmy, folks!

Joke’s on them, they can’t “purge” the enlisted ranks without the entire military effectively collapsing due to already undermanned forces. And contracts. I don’t expect they care about the contracts, but the collapse of the US military is probable something even the fascists want to avoid.

I know from personal experience that the military is currently split. I’m wondering how many service members will actually comply with the orders, and how many will either refuse them as unlawful orders or invoke conscientious objection.